Lean Kanban University is introducing a new entry level Kanban class for Team Kanban together with a certification and professional credential, TKP, Team Kanban Practitioner. This new class becomes the entry level on the "alternative path to agility" and reflects the market reality that most Kanban starts shallow and at the team level.

The Kanban Method was conceived as an alternative path to agility - as a means to improve responsiveness and adaptability without any significant revolution or reorganization in your way or working or political structure of your business. Lean Kanban University has recently introduced a series of training classes developed and evolved from older, tried and tested curriculum to ease adoption of Kanban and communicate the full scope and scale of what is possible when you fully embrace Kanban as a way to manage your modern professional services business.

I've been giving some careful thought to why it became necessary to create the concept of Enterprise Services Planning.

At the most fundamental level, ESP was necessary to provide a container for the collection of things we were teaching that were beyond kanban systems and beyond the scope of the Kanban Method. These were the things that enabled the optimal and effective use of kanban systems - topics such as: probabilistic forecasting and statistical analysis; qualitative risk assessment; real option theory; connecting strategy to operational mechanisms such as Kanban capacity allocation; and so forth. ESP represents a system of management for an entire professional services business. It isn't just an IT thing and it certainly isn't just for operational management of a single service delivery workflow. So we needed a name that encompassed concepts that were a lot bigger than Kanban.

Recently, I've taken a new approach to teaching The Kanban Method. The new Lean Kanban "Practicing the Kanban Method" class is built around the 7 Kanban Cadences - the cyclical meetings that drive evolutionary change and "fit for purpose" service delivery. Two of these meetings are relatively new additions to the method: Risk Review added in 2014 as a response to Klaus Leopold formalizing Blocker Clustering in 2013; and Strategy Review as an emergent response to the concept of "fit for purpose" and the need to sense the external environment, in order to be able to respond appropriately. The other 5 were existing elements of the method, though the first edition of my Kanban book ommitted Service Delivery Review. In truth our training has not until now emphasized these meetings and particularly replenishment/commitment and delivery planning have not been explicitly taught. Little wonder then that these very basic functions of Kanban have not been well implemented in the field.

Lean Kanban North America takes place in Miami, Florida 8-10 June 2015 at the Eden Roc Hotel on Miami Beach. This year we are both going "back to our roots" while "looking to the future" with a very specific Kanban practitioner event. If you are already doing Kanban and want to know how to take your practice to the next level, or you are curious how to scale the benefits to your entire organization or a business unit, or you just want to know how to apply Kanban outside of IT and software development, then this is the event for you!

Perhaps it's about practicing Kanban and it is written by a practitioner? And that would be true!

Perhaps it's about understanding Kanban and its community of followers from a community insider? And that would be true too!

Or perhaps it is about something deeper, something truly "from the inside", from inside the author? Kanban from the heart? Kanban from the soul? Kanban expressed by a deeply spiritual person with a strong sense of self and a deeply held set of values?

This year, we're officially introducing Enterprise Services Planning (ESP) as a concept and specifically as a management training curriculum. Later this year, I anticipate the launch of Enterprise Services Planning software tools to support the mechanisms and methods taught in our classes.

What is Enterprise Services Planning (ESP)?

Kanban is now table stakes for many businesses managing enterprise services delivery. They've learned that introducing Kanban to their management system has improved service delivery with typical results showing 400% increase in delivery rate, drops in lead time from 50% to 90%+, and significant gains in predictability and on-time delivery, or "due date performance." The results are so good organizations like to duplicate it - one workflow after another, one service after another. This raises a challenge. Businesses are ecosystems of interdependent services. Kanban isn't enough on its own. Business struggle with the challenge of managing their portfolios and aligning their activities with their strategy and choosing a strategy that is appropriately aligned with their capability. We see people every day struggle to make decisions and do their jobs with confidence. What should we start next? When do we need to start something to feel confident it will be delivered when we need it? How many activities should we have running in parallel? Do we have capacity to do everything we need to do? If we delay starting something, are we confident the capacity will be available when we need it? How will dependencies affect our ability to deliver?

Enterprise Services Planning is a new modular 5-day training curriculum for managing modern businesses involving lots of knowledge work and creative services. If your organization contains people who must think and make decisions for their living then Enterprise Services Planning is the management training framework that will transform your business. While ideally taken together as 5 days of intensive emersion, ESP training is offered in 4 modules.

Enterprise Services Planning is a new modular 5-day training curriculum for managing modern businesses involving lots of knowledge work and creative services. If your organization contains people who must think and make decisions for their living then Enterprise Services Planning is the management training framework that will transform your business. While ideally taken together as 5 days of intensive emersion, ESP training is offered in 4 modules.